It’s the rattiest city in the US. It’s so bad they let coyotes help with the problem

Fall isn’t just the season of pumpkin spiced lattes.

It’s also rat season, gross as it is to think about.

On cue, pest control company Orkin released its annual Top 50 Rattiest Cities list, which ranks the mostly metropolitan areas by the number of rodent “treatments” performed from October 2015 to September 30, 2016.

The list includes cities like New York, New Orleans and Portland, Ore. But it ranks Chicago as the rattiest city in the U.S.

It’s a designation the city also held in 2014. It shouldn’t be a surprise.

Animal Planet listed the city as one of the 10 Worst Rat Cities in the World and in August, the website Chicagoist wondered “Are there more rats in Chicago this summer?”

Short answer: Maybe.

In Chicago, the Department of Streets and Sanitation responds to more than 1 million calls for service each year—a figure that includes rat complaints. Crews pass out brochures on rodents and hang “Don't Feed the Rats” signs up in alleys, according to the Chicagoist.

In July, the department even started a pilot program to use nonlethal liquid contraceptive bait in a feeding tube to make rats infertile, according to the Chicago Tribune. The city also uses poisonous pellets and dry ice.

Another rat-battling technique for Chicago is coyotes.

The city has become known for its urban coyotes. In 2010, the Cook County Urban Coyote Research Project released 60 coyotes equipped with radio-tracking collars into the city, according to Time Out Chicago.

Partly, the project studied wild coyotes interacting with urban environments.

It also helped with the rats.

And just last year, an alderman in the city fought to establish a “coyote wildlife management program” that would keep animal control officers from using lethal force on coyotes unless they attack or threaten a human or pet, according to Time Out Chicago.

This story was originally published October 17, 2017 at 1:07 PM with the headline "It’s the rattiest city in the US. It’s so bad they let coyotes help with the problem."